Decisions, Decisions...

I'm just about to round off 20 months here in Canada. Sweet mother of the devine, it has flown by. With so little time left, I've been thinking hard about what to do next and have had many suggestions thrown at me. My options include:

1. Looking into visa options to stay here longer. It is possible, and I know it would keep the Plummers happy but I get a feeling I might be done with Canada (possibly just Toronto). It is too cold in winter, too warm in summer, milk comes in bags, sugar comes in cartons, motorists can turn right on a red light, you can only buy alcohol in government run shops, too many hipsters, too expensive. Not to say I have not enjoyed my time here, that would be crazy as I have loved just about every second of it but I think it's time to move on.
2. Australia/New Zealand. Definitely on the list but I'm putting myself under enough pressure as it is to get the money to travel more in Canada before I leave, if I want to save money to start myself a new life down under, I would need to work every hour of the day right up until the day I leave. Oz and Nz aren't going anywhere.
3. Going home... Well, the decision has pretty much already been made. Despite my best intentions and best laid plans, I was not able to save enough money to do what I want. Still, the more I think about it, the more I think I'm ready to go home. Being here in Toronto has been an emotional rollercoaster in itself, although sometimes I feel like it was all caused by weather related mood swings. I've been home twice since coming away and had no idea I would miss it as much as I have.

The long and short of it is, I'm going home. Gonna work my ass off for the next few months and enjoy the rest of my time here, travel out west and fly back from Vancouver in December. Anybody going to be travelling between Toronto and Vancouver in November, let me know. Those of you still in Ireland, see you all for Christmas - it's gonna be a good one!

Moral of the Story - in the immortal words of my good friend Dorothy 'There's no place like home'. I don't have red shoes to click though. Can't afford proper shoes in Toronto ;)

New Year, New Me?

If by 'New Me', you mean someone who actually updates their blog with any sort of regularity....then, yes. Hopefully this does indeed signal a new me. 

Urban Dictionary defines a new year's resolution as 'the things you promise yourself you will do over the year but quit after the first 2 weeks. I couldn't agree more. I am not exactly the type of person who makes New Year's resolutions and here are my other reasons why:

1. January is one of the most depressing months on the calendar. Christmas is over, you've spent too much money, you've become sick of the family and friends that you struggled to spend time with over the holiday season because you're just too busy the rest of the year. Why compound all that misery with resolutions that involve you giving up something you enjoy or limiting the free time you already have?
2. People generally make unrealistic resolutions that are not unattainable exactly but are usually somewhat out of reach. 'I'm never drinking/smoking/eating rubbish/stealing traffic cones/molesting sheep again'. Or something to that effect. It should be 'I'll only have 3 drinks a day instead of 7', 'I'll only steal 4 traffic cones a month' or 'I'll only molest the sheep with really good personalities'. High expectations breed failure so aim low. 
3. If you're not trying to give something up, you're trying to learn something new or do something better than you did before. Again, the 1st of January seems like a good time to start but making resolutions like being more charitable/helping the homeless/learn Italian pick up some new hottie at work/become a pole dancing instructor - these should be things that you do all year round. 

If I were to make resolutions, I wouldn't call them 'resolutions'; I'd call them my new year intentions. Not to be monitored but just attempted, with no shame if I fail.

• Try to be a bit nicer to people. I stress the word 'bit'. Every job I've had over the last few years has led me to have a certain level of disdain for the general public that I will try to curb where possible. I need to realise that most of our customers do not wake up in the morning with the sole intention of ruining my day. Sometimes it creeps into my private life too, although I seem to get away with it with people who know me but I'm bound to offend one of them someday. Not while Andy Shaw's around obviously....
• Travel more. Not giving myself a number of kilometres or countries to visit, just simply to travel more. This would even include getting a TTC day pass and taking all the streetcar lines from one end right to the other. This might even include trying out some other bars that aren't the Departure Lounge but let's not get too carried away here. 
• Read more. I've become more addicted to watching TV shows that I've already seen while curled up on my bed in the hostel but think it would be a good idea to expand my (admittedly, already impressive) language skills and not just improving my watercooler conversation topics. Except Game of Thrones. I am eagerly awaiting series 3, just like everyone else and will repeat the first 2 series again and again. Oh, I could read those books actually, couldn't I? 2 birds with 1 stone, I like that. 

Still, all of these may go the way of most new year's resolutions, or they can remain intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Let's hope it's a fun road to travel on!

Moral of the Story - I quite like the old me, thanks very much. A few minor adjustments wouldn't go astray perhaps but nobody's perfect!

Life's Too Short To Sleep Alone

What greets you as you check in......

That is the slogan of Global Village Backpackers, stated very plainly on the information board at reception. What a motto to live and work by! It definitely describes the hostel perfectly ;). Now, you could go down the dirty route (as I know most of you will, you filthy minded creatures! As Ian pointed out 'if my mind didn't live in the gutter, it would be homeless') and assume that we are encouraging promiscuous activity but we certainly don't. Not that we are judgemental if there are some innocent hook ups but before you embark on any wild passionate love affairs in a hostel, make sure to read the following guide....

Anyway, I had been applying for lots of different types of positions, as per my previous blog post on Job Hunting in Canada, and when I applied for the Front Desk Agent position here, it was on a bit of a whim, with a lot of encouragement from Gillian. Once I had posted on Facebook where I was going to be working, I got a wonderful reaction from people telling me how perfect they thought the job would be for me. And how right they were. I work with a great bunch of people and get to meet new people all the time, which can be both a good and a bad thing! There is also a bar on site, the wonderful Departure Lounge, which will undoubtedly finish the job that Fitzgeralds started in terms of my liver failure.

I would take you through a typical day but there is no such thing as a typical day at GVB. I think the best way to express what it's like working in the hostel is to describe a few of the more entertaining guests (by entertaining, I mean mental obviously), my colleagues and a few of the stand-out moments that have occurred in my 2 and a half months here so far......

• In terms of the guests.....generally, they're pretty great. A few of the more memorable ones include the woman who carried a pile of washing out the door and across the street because she saw a limo pull up at the traffic lights and assumed 'there must be someone interesting in there'; knocked on the car window to talk to the driver and got annoyed when it pulled away. There was the man who passed out in the toilets and then tried to accuse us of stealing money from him.....while he was locked in the toilet cubicle. The staff are talented but we're not ninjas. The man who asked one too many times about why the internet connection wasn't working......and was killed (not really, he was moved to another, more internet receptive room). Let's not forget creepy condo guy.He never actually stayed here, he just frequents the bar and tried to lure people to his condo for 'parties'.
• Where do I start with my colleagues? Great bunch of people altogether. We've got 5 Irish, 3 Germans, 3 Australians, 1 English and 1 Cornish. There's a couple of Canadians as well, so we're not prejudiced! Quite a mix but we manage to get along pretty well. Karaoke on Friday nights can be quite a spectacle when we all get involved. Many of these colleagues feature in my Top 5 GVB moments so far.....

1. The night we shaved Tom's head - so Tom decided that he wanted to try having his head shaved as he'd never done it before and always wondered what it would look like. I was on shift til 11 and had asked that they wait until I was finished before they did it so that I could watch. They went one better and got Shaun to agree to let them do it in the bar. We all took turns taking snips at his floppy English locks until Andy went hell for leather with the razor.....
2. Karaoke Friday Nights - it's really hard to pick just one stand out moment from karaoke, there have been so many epic performances. Tom and Andy with their Jason Beaver tributes; Gillian, Kate and Nic doing Journey proud,; Craig doing Mustang Sally after bitching that he wouldn't sing EVER. I think the winner has to be both renditions of Fairytale of New York that we kicked out over Christmas.
3. New Year's Eve - not generally the biggest fan of New Years as traditionally, it's a massive let down. I was even more apprehensive being away from home but that didn't matter. Everyone who was there was in the same boat pretty much, the music was great and I drank way too much. And there was no Auld Lang Syne. Perfect.
4. The night I threw the pint over Alan - this was possibly the great turning point in my time here. We'd been at our staff party and everyone was very merry with a lot of fizzy drinks having been taken on board. After the session in the party room at Sally & Shaun's condo, we all headed over to the hostel bar for more drinks (as if we needed them). A few of us were out on the patio and Alan decided it might be funny if he leaned over and poured some beer down my top. Through my shock, I reacted on instinct......and launched my entire pint over his head. Dear reader, I cannot express how tense those few seconds immediately following that were. As soon as the beer was leaving the glass, my first thought was 'bollox. I've taken this way too far'. There was pure silence from everyone else (probably some tumbleweed blowing) as we all waited for his reaction. He raised his head, beer dripping from his glasses, looked at me....and started laughing. The he high-fived me, gave me a hug and said that it was well deserved. Boom.
5. The kidnapping saga - this incident is very recent and will require an entire blog post all of it's own but let's just say that my dearest friend Henry Brontasaurus was kidnapped by a dreadful Scouse Gangster and it was touch and go as to whether I would ever see him again. An elaborate Facebook creation, a ransom note and a Dinosaur Abduction Awareness Organisation hosting a Silent Auction later and it has all been resolved.

Me outside GVB (this was actually before I started working)

Moral of the Story - if you want to take a year out and are lucky enough not to be saddled with a mortgage/kids/other grown up responsibilities; work in a hostel. You may not make a lot of money, but you'll have some craic. And sure, isn't that what it's all about at the end of the day? ;) 

Job Hunting in Canada

A lot of people say that it's easier to get a job when you have job. Therefore, having upped sticks and travelled halfway across the world with just a visa and a smile, technically I was probably at a slight disadvantage. At the same time, I had heard that the job market was relatively healthy in Canada. In all fairness, I had been advising people of that very same thing for 3 years while working at USIT so I hoped that what I had been telling people was as true as I proclaimed it to be!

Preliminary searches before I left Ireland indicated that there was plenty of jobs over there. I sent off a couple of applications (including my updated 'resume' that had been Canadianised) for various positions mainly along the line of the marketing/office style work I had been doing up to that point. Just before leaving, I decided that I would most likely end up working in a pub or restaurant and decided to complete the Smart Serve course so that I would be able to serve alcohol responsibly (I am a complete retard at 'knowing the one that's one too many'; as if I'd be able to make a decent decision regarding other people drinking responsibly). After 2 days, I realised that everyone I know here works office hours. Do I really want to work the complete opposite shifts to them?

I decided to put my focus back into the office side of things. I set up some meetings with recruitment agents and sent off roughly 30 resumes a day for various positions, including the following;

• Communications/Social Media Coordinator for a charity
• Production Team Member at Tim Hortons
• Office Administrator in a lawyers office
• Special Events Organiser at a college
• Administrator for an Immigration firm that specialises in advising internationals who want to move to Canada and Canadians who wish to move abroad
• Executive Director (aim high right?) for the Irish Canadian Immigration Centre. 

Anyone who knows what I've been doing for the last few years will immediately see that the last 2 jobs should have been mine in all fairness. How could they not want me? Waited for them to call, still sending off other applications but knowing that there could be no other positions as perfect for me as these two. Then the phone rang.....oh joy! It was.....Tim Hortons. Was I free for a quick chat about the position available? Fair enough, I'll play along for now. The usual questions follow; what's my availability, why did I come to Canada, why do I want to work for Tim Hortons, would I mind a bit of baking. I answered in my best possible phone voice and she invited me to come in the next day to meet the manager of the store. I turned up all suited and booted, ready to convince them that I 'really wanted to be part of the Tim Hortons team' (this was a phrase I did actually utter and immediately afterward wanted to punch myself in the face). The manager, God bless her, was 45 minutes late for my interview. I am not a particularly impatient woman but I must say, after 30 minutes and 3 free coffees, I did consider whether I was actually bothered to work there. 

I stuck it out obviously (desperation was taking hold at this stage that I would be unemployed forever) and the interview went quite well I thought. She asked me what my availability was, why did I come to Canada, why did I want to work for Tims, she didn't ask me about the baking though. I hadn't left the place an hour when she rang me and asked me to come back the next day to meet the owner. Good sign. The owner was not late, thankfully. First thing he says is 'I haven't read your resume. I want you to tell me about yourself.' Being the shy wallflower that I am, this was quite hard for me.....but I managed. Then he asked me my availability, why I had come to Canada and why I wanted to work for Tims (this was the point where I talked about the Tim Hortons team and how much I wanted to be a part of it. Loser) and said that he would let me know early the next week. I still haven't heard anything and that was 17 days ago. Deduce from that what you will. 

Then of course, dear Gillian, my shining light and saviour, came out to me last week and said that the hostel down the block was looking for front desk staff. I'd work in the hostel, meet new people, live the backpacker lifestyle. This could work! I emailed the name Gillian had given me and tried not to make my cover letter sound too desperate (this is very hard to do). I heard back within an hour to arrange an interview for a few days later. Not one to count my chickens, I made sure to keep applying for other jobs in the meantime. I was very nervous before the interview but the manager, Sally, seemed really nice, very friendly and was also from Cornwall so I knew she couldn't be a bad egg! I thought the interview went well but I was really weary to get my hopes up as I knew how much I wanted this job.

Obviously, I'm on my way to a job interview 2 days later when she emails me to offer me the position. I actually did a little jump in the middle of the street and laughed out loud with complete and utter delight. It was arranged that I wouldn't be starting until the following week, meaning that I would be free for the weekend while I had friends visiting from the homeland, it all seemed to be working out fairly well! Over the next few days, as I mentioned at the start of my little piece how much easier it was to get a job when you already have a job, I was contacted by 7 other employers that I had sent applications to in the 3 weeks since I'd arrived, all offering me interviews and seeing if I was still available to work. I did begin to wonder if maybe I should see what else was out there. I could tell somewhere in my gut though that this would be perfect for me.

Moral of the Story - while you should not always take the first thing that is offered to you, it usually pays off to follow your gut instincts. We'll see how it pays off in the long run though.....

Things I Noticed & Things I Learned This Time Around

3rd time in New York, some things still stand out to me.....

• The gaps between the bathroom doors. Usually less than a centimetre wide but still rather unnerving, you can see people washing their hands and hope to God that you don't catch someone's eye.
• The traffic light system. There's no such thing as a 'filter light' for drivers to turn and even when the pedestrian light says 'walk', it is still perfectly legal for cars to turn in your path. They're not trying to kill you as such but it kinda feels like they are.
• In a city of over 8 million people, it still amazes me how easy it is to bump into other Irish people and establish random connections.
• Despite people thinking that New Yorkers are rude, I still find them to be among the most delightful people that I have ever met. Brash and I love it.
• As per my last blog entry. I still haven't been to a single museum or gallery. You could spend 4 months straight only doing tourist activities and still not see everything that there is to see. Always an excuse to go back though!!

I also learned some really interesting things this time around;

• In Central Park, the reason why all the pathways (and the 4 roads that pass through) are so convoluted is because the architect and designers wanted to give people something different to the block-like grids on the rest of the island of Manhattan.
• There are more sweet potatoes grown on one farm in North Carolina than in the entire country of Australia (this was courtesy of one of the girls in my dorm room who had spent 3 weeks leading some sweet potato farmers around to different farms in America).
• You will not fall asleep on the trains after a few drinks if you stand up instead of sitting down. You can also get security to let you out for a cigarette when you've realised that the train isn't for another half an hour or so by claiming you're trying to put a phone call through to Ireland.
• American Football is officially the worst game in the world. I might even hate it more than cricket. Those of you that know me, will know the emphasis of this statement. I hate cricket more than I hate Linda Martin. 

Moral of the Story - I think it's fairly self explanatory from the above don't you? I love New York. I love New Jersey , well, Hoboken.

New York, New York!

This time around, I had planned to really get my act together and do some proper tourist stuff in New York. I nearly managed it too, got that Central Park tour done and had a big Downtown Tour planned for the Saturday morning and afternoon. Of course, then my life got in the way. I headed out to Hoboken on the Friday night to see some of my old friends from my Summer J1, ended up getting pretty inebriated. Fell asleep on the train on the way home (just like the old days!) so didn't get back to my hostel until after 6am. Obviously managed to sleep in and miss the tour. Didn't seem like the worst idea once I woke up and saw the snow 3 inches thick outside the window.

Later that night, I headed out to Woodlawn in the Bronx to meet up with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, they were going to a Halloween Party and him and all of his friends had these amazing costumes on. I was in jeans. We went out to this bar called the Heritage, where I managed to speak to one American person the entire night. Everyone was Irish, it was like being in Dublin almost. Ended up in a nightclub that was like Coppers on a slightly smaller scale. You could even smoke in the bar; I got so excited that I chain-smoked 18 cigarettes in about half an hour. Woodlawn is a world of it's own, great place to visit but not sure my liver would survive living there! I did pass Yankee Stadium on my way back into the city although I was too hungover to take a picture.

On the Monday, I went on a free walking tour in Brooklyn. We had the cutest old guide named Ed. First tour guide I've met who announced that he rarely said 'Follow me everyone', it was more likely to be 'Hey guys, wait up!' So old and sweet. He took us on the Subway out to Brooklyn where we walked a little bit around the Brooklyn Heights area then down to the Promenade where there were some breathtaking views of Lower Manhattan, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge. I probably took around 10 million pictures of the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.

That night, I met up with the new Mr and Mrs Byrne fresh from their relaxing week in Cancun, Mexico. We went for dinner in the lovely Tír na nÓg restaurant by Penn Station before heading up to Times Square, an area I hadn't actually set foot within 10 blocks of this time around being there. I knew I needed a picture of Henry the Dinosaur there too! Found an Irish bar (like there is an opportunity to drink in a bar that's not Irish around Times Square) and had a few drinks. Nice way to end my trip.

Moral of the Story - no matter how many times you visit NYC, it is still possible not to visit a single museum. Make sure to get out and see something other than the traditional sights. Also make sure to visit the boroughs. You meet some special people out there. You know who you are.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....if you don't know the rest of the words, just check it out here -
John Denver's infamous song.......

So, the big day is finally here. Time for me to spread my wings, broaden my horizons, expand my mind, etc. etc. blah blah blah. I'm sure all of those things apply to me also but the real reason I'm going? Boredom. Everything was at a bit of a standstill. My friends are getting engaged/married/having babies/buying houses/heading off on their own travels. I was just working away Monday to Friday, spending too much money in Fitzgeralds (not that I didn't enjoy it!) and just generally stuck in a Groundhog Day style situation. Only problem was, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing differently in order to make things 'right'.

I had always loosely planned to take a major trip around the world. As per the aforementioned overspending in my favourite bar, I did not quite get the money together for that kind of trip. Instead, I decided that I should get a work visa and head somewhere that I knew a little bit about, had some friends over there already, spoke the same language as me.....where better than the very same country that I had been working for 2 and a half years sending people to?? Plus, I figured somewhere like Toronto would offer a good springboard to visit other places in the US as well, which also really appealed to me. Unlike most of my peers, the Australia thing doesn't grab me the same way, although the recent promotions we ran in work made me think that I'd made a massive mistake in terms of choosing my destination. Plenty of time in the future for that though!!

First, I head to New York for 5 days. Hopefully I will actually get to do some of the tourist activities that I missed out on the last time, the hostel I'm staying at seems to organise some great tours. Plus I'll get to visit my friends in New Jersey which will be amazing. AND Helena & Brian will be arriving in from the Mexican honeymoon for one night that I will be there so that will be great craic. Then it's off to Toronto. I've been taking little bets with myself as to when I'll remember that I'm not on a holiday. I know that Gillian will help to get me settled as soon as possible, as well as being her Tourist Nazi self and making sure I see everything amazing (as well some boring nerdy stuff) that there is to see in her hometown, which I'm very grateful for ;)

I am sad to be leaving my family and friends, as well as a little bit terrified, but I'm looking forward to it at the same time. Besides, I won't be gone for too long. Back in July for another wedding and then we'll see how I'm fixed for staying a second year...or heading to Oz or NZ or having enough money to extend my travels a little further afield.

Moral of the Story - For this one, I'll leave you with some words of wisdom from one of the wisest men I've ever met and advice which I intend to adhere to while travelling. 'Be good, be kind, be truthful, be free....and don't forget to bring your own toilet paper on the plane.